IRA gunman ‘shot civilian dead’, claims former soldier

AN IRA gunman sheltering in a doorway shot a civilian dead at a barricade on Bloody Sunday, a former paratrooper said yesterday.

Soldier U, giving evidence at the Saville Inquiry in London, described in his statement how he saw an arm appear holding a pistol from the Rossville Flats.

The soldier, then a private in Mortar Platoon of the Parachute Regiment, said the gunman blindly fired two rounds in quick succession, injuring an old man in the arm at the Rubble Barricade. He said one of the bullets killed a young man standing nearby.